Friday, 28 December 2012

Web ID resources

The internet has revolutionised natural history. More literature - keys, photo galleries, discussion threads - is more widely available now than at any previous point, and more and more experts are easily contactable to check what you've found. However, these resources are scattered far and wise across the web, buried in distant sites even Google barely knows, and often the hardest thing can be finding a reliable starting place.

I'm a biologist by trade, a naturalist by inclination, and since I first found the internet I've been collecting links on how to identify British wildlife. Chatting to a few friends has finally persuaded me to put the links somewhere useful! The links are grouped by family, sorted alphabetically by Class and then by Order, and are just sites I've found useful, mainly keys and galleries. I'm sure they're not comprehensive, but they're a start! If you know of more, please do email me on richardcomont at gmail.com & I'll add them.

Several of the sites aren't in English - I tend to open these sites using Google Chrome, which has an inbuilt translation facility which seems to work fairly well, and which will pop up automatically when the site loads

The most important thing you can do with your sighting is to record it, and turn your sighting into a biological record. These records build into data, which can be used in myriad different ways - scientifically, to indicate the general health of the countryside, to determine the effects of an invasive species on native populations, or just to prove that this particular field is a wildlife haven that shouldn't be built on. None of it is possible unless you write down your findings!

About Me

Having just finished my PhD with the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Rothamsted Research & Oxford University, I now run bee monitoring schemes for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in my day job. In my spare time I'm part of the UK Ladybird Survey team and co-lead the national Garden Bioblitz.
I'm interested in wildlife generally, but particularly in insects.